Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and now David Cameron have addressed their party conferences. They set out their visions of how Britain can recover from economic strife and how they want to shape society.

Simon Lancaster ,a speechwriting expert, says it was a lacklustre year and picks out the dos and don'ts of political speeches.

Michael White, Nick Cohen and Anne Perkins have been round the conference circuit in the past month. They found a Liberal Democrat party comfortable in government, a Labour party breaking in a new leader and a Conservative party confident, yet buffeted by concerns on the reception of its child benefit proposals.

Also this week: where is the centre ground in politics and who gets to define it? And who should get the top shadow cabinet jobs - and what will their allocation say about Labour's new leader?